I have an 06 FX4 F150 and I absolutely love her. So far it has needed a new alternator, spark plugs and coil packs, and something with the rear suspension I can't remember right now. I'm mainly focused on the oil though right now. The truck has 964XX on it and I'm actually nearing an oil change, but wish to do it asap.

I have heard rumors of people changing oil types and weights. Is this true? Should I, and will it do it better?

 

Don't mess around with it, stay with what it calls for,5w20.

 

Motorcraft blend 5-20. Why would you change if it's working fine?

 

No rumor

I just changed to 5w-30 and the ticking/tapping I had developed went away. Fustrating as my truck is maintained so well. Never would have done that if it was still quiet. If it's running fine, leave it alone. My advice is don't look for problems where there are none.

 

agreed...

 

My truck also has the ticking noise, and that's what brought me to the idea of changing oil weight. Is it worth doing?

 

Is it injector ticking? Mine was coming from the valve cover

 

The injectors click as they open and close. If that us what you hear, oil can't help with that.

 

I'm fairly sure I have the cam phaser problem.

 

I switched to high milage oil and stuck with the correct oil weight. It runs great and I've been running it for about 70k miles now and the truck has about 185k miles on it now.

 

The oils that you buy come in SAE viscosity ratings. That's a general rating not an absolute. You can have thin 5w-20 oils and you can have thick 5w-20 oils for it's respective SAE viscosity range. Most of the 5w-20 oils are on the thick end of the scale.. The Energy Conserving 5w-30 oils are on the thin end of the 5w-30 SAE range. So the actual viscosity differences can be extremely small. If you have a higher mileage engine, you can add life to it by moving up to the next viscosity rating, in this case a 5w-30. The issue is wear at the lower bearings. As these bearing wear they lose oil. These are the same bearings that supply the rings with oil. If they lose enough oil, the rings literally starve for oil and wear is accelerated. Using a thicker oil restores some of the lost oil as it doesn't run out as fast due to the "thickness". On real high mileage engines, life can be extended by using a 5w-40 or 15w-40 oil. My personal truck has 130,000 miles on the 4.6 2V engine. I've switched it over to a 5w-30 EC oil. There has been zero change in fuel mileage and it runs like always- brand new. Wear metals have remained the same as every oil change gets tested. FWIW, those with the 5.4 3V engines. The oil viscosity does not change the timing of the VCT system even though it is oil pressure activated. Ford even recommends a 5w-40 for 5.4 3v engines that are noisy.

 

I had dieseling and ticking under the hood. I switched from 5w-20 to 5w-30 and both noises went away and she is quiet now. I also had some misfires and CEL light. Truck was running rough and would idle horribly. Turns out is was a bad bank 2 O2 sensor. Truck is running nicely now.

But to answer your question, if you have dieseling/ticking noises from under the hood and high mileage, switch to 5w-30.

I have 156k on her.

 

Been running 5w-30 for almost 100k miles, a lot quieter than the 20 and no negative effects.

 

Had more driving the past few weeks than normal. Around 550-600 miles and still quiet. I'm hoping this continues. Good to see others have had the success that I have expedienced as well so far.